Hello, All --

I promised pictures of our trip to Sucre over the Christmas holiday.  I discovered as I was sifting through, deleting and labeling pictures that I have over 300!  So today I'm just going to cover part of the trip, leaving the Castillo Glorietta for next week and Los Origenes for the week after that.  So here goes . . .

Monday, December 23rd we flew out of Cochabamba to Sucre.  Our plane left half an hour late, so we got to Sucre (and checked into the hotel) just in time for lunch.  Here you see Farron with our friends and fellow missionaries, Glen and Lynda Westover (from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) in the Cochabamba terminal.

This is the Plaza Central in Sucre (about 3 blocks from our hotel.)

The colonial architecture is one of the most beautiful features of Sucre.

The city has four names, one of which is "White City" and you can see why. 

This beautiful cathedral covers almost an entire block across from the plaza.

This is the oldest university in South America, and I hear, one of the best.

After lunch on Monday, we went to the Parque Cretácico (Dinosaur Park).  A huge cement company was digging up gravel and came upon this wall which has many, many dinosaur footprints on it.  Being civic-minded, they stopped excavating and called in experts to evaluate their find.  Apparently all this land was flat at one time (which is how the dinosaurs walked across it) and then in some tectonic upheaval eons ago, it was tipped up on end as you now see it.  The cement company owns all this land, so they built the Dinosaur Park as a tourist attraction and also an educational site for school children (and others) to visit.  This wall is enormous, which I'm afraid doesn't come across in the picture.  The park is built on the other side of this hole (I am standing just outside the entrance to the park, looking across the pit.)

This is another view of the wall, from inside the park.

Here's the best close-up I could get of the dinosaur footprints. Can you see them?

They look very small but we've been told that many of these footprints are a yard long.

A view of the park buildings and entrance from the parking lot.

The park entrance (at the top of hill above).

Farron and I outside the entrance.

The next several pictures are of the life-size dinosaurs throughout the park.  Yes, there are signs identifying each one but I didn't write them all down - sorry.

T-Rex from the path below.

How small this dinosaur looks next to the Allosaurus.

Below is my favorite and I believe it's an Allosaurus.  Even after watching "Land Before Time" innumerable times with Will (our grandson), I had NO concept of how big these creatures were until we visited this park. Just look at him in comparison to the trees, the people, and the other dinosaurs!  (And no, I never saw Jurassic Park because I knew it would give me nightmares.  Had I watched it, perhaps the size of this dinosaur wouldn't have been so surprising to me.)

Here I am standing by one of his legs.

Me and T-Rex at the end of the path, near the Visitors' Center,
which has much educational material.

This was taken just outside the Visitors' Center.

As we were walking from the bus-stop back toward our hotel, we saw this street-corner Santa.  We didn't get to hear him and his friend play their instruments, but we appreciated the friendly wave.

We also saw these policemen (yes, they really are) at the Plaza Central.

They help people across the street, direct traffic when necessary, and just generally

make themselves useful and entertaining.

They were very happy to pose for pictures with us.

Tuesday, December 24th, we visited the Castillo Glorieta in the morning - I'll tell you all about it next week (lots of cool pictures).  When we got back (it's about 5 kilometers outside of Sucre), we ate lunch at a place called Abis Patio.  The food was great and so was the service.  This is our group (all missionaries).  L/R around the table:  Lynn Crayk, Diana Crayk, Farron, me, Glen Westover, Lynda Westover, Dawn Hurst, Eldon Hurst, Alan Chalmers and Sally Chalmers.

That afternoon, we went up to the Recoleta - this is the view of it from the roof of our hotel.  See the long white building with the row of arches near the center of the picture?

This is a shot I took looking toward those arches from the other side.

And here is Farron inside the arched walkway or colonnade,

with a little of the beautiful view showing behind him.

There is a convent here that gives tours and that's what we were looking for.  (I've been calling it a monastery in other posts, but I found out on this trip that it's really a convent.)  Anyway, because it was Christmas Eve Day, they closed at 2:00 and we missed out on the tour.  

This is the Church of the Recoleta; the convent is to the right.

This is the church school - a private Catholic school like the ones we have at home.

And this is one shot of the amazing view from the colonnade.

This is the street you drive or climb up to get to the Recoleta.

The last block is about a 45 degree angle (super-steep), 

though unfortunately I'm not a good enough photographer

(or my camera's not good enough) to show that.

That evening - Christmas Eve - as we were walking to the restaurant where we had dinner,

we saw a large group of children performing in the Plaza Central.

This is their guitarist and below is a shot of the chorus.

They all had instruments -  mostly the native flutes but also some drums, triangles and a harmonica-type instrument.  The adults were playing guitars.Those who didn't have to blow into an instrument were singing - in Quechua.  Very cool.

Christmas Day all the museums and other tourist attractions were closed of course, so we had a leisurely breakfast at our wonderful hotel and then played board games until lunchtime.

Speaking of our hotel - Hotel Parador Santa Maria Real - here are a couple of pictures of our room.  I especially thought the sink resting on an antique sewing-machine base was really unique.  (Also the brick ceilings, which I know I mentioned back in October when we first went to Sucre.  I still don't know what holds them up.)

  

For lunch we went to a restaurant called Los Balcones which faces the Plaza Central, and of course we sat out on the balcony to eat.

While we were there, some fellow tourists we had met at the Castillo came in to have lunch also.   Where they got the Santa tunics and hats, I don't know, but they certainly were festive.  All three girls are from Australia; the tallest one is a paralegal who sold her home and is traveling for a year!  They decided they wanted a picture with us by the Christmas tree and we were happy to oblige.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel, collected our luggage, and went to the airport for the trip home.  This was undoubtedly the most unusual Christmas we've ever had - not very "Christmas-y" really - but a once in a lifetime opportunity, so . . . .

That's it for today.  Have a great week.  We wish you a happy New Year's Eve and a great New Year!

Hello, Everyone -- there won't be a proper blog posting this week because we are leaving tomorrow morning (Monday, December 23rd) on a visit to the city of Sucre, and will be returning late on Wednesday, Christmas Day.  Next Monday - December 30th - I hope to have wonderful things to show you.  In the meantime, "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" filled with love, family, and happiness!

Hello, All --

I am a day late with the blog because we were so busy yesterday, there was no time even to choose the pictures, let alone download them or write any explanations.  However, before I tell about yesterday I want to go back to last week.

On Wednesday, December 11th, we took our dear friends and fellow-temple-missionaries, Franklin and Lilia Perez to Paprika (a restaurant downtown) for a farewell dinner.  This is what we saw as soon as we entered the restaurant.  Isn't it pretty?

 The restaurant is a two-story building,

and these are the decorations on the stairs.

I love Christmas decorations, in case you can't tell.

Here we are with our friends at the restaurant.

It was great food and we really were happy to be together,

but sad to be parting soon.  Hence the serious faces.

And the very next day (Thursday, December 12th), we had an "Open House" sort of despedida ("farewell") for Los Pérez at the Cine Center Food Court.  Here are a couple of shots of the gathering.

 Notice the stars hanging from the ceiling - quite festive, really.

This is a long view of the whole group.  

You can see Farron on the left.

The lady in the center in the pink sweater is Hermana Diaz.

She's the one who plans these things.

And one good group shot of almost-everyone.  Unfortunately several couples had already left because they had to be back up at the temple for the afternoon shift.

That was last week.  Then yesterday (Monday, December 16th) we had three celebrations in one day.  

First we went to La Colonia Hotel for the annual Christmas luncheon for all the employees at the temple. These are not missionaries or volunteer workers but rather the people who keep the temple running, and they are employees of the Church.  There is a security department (7 employees), a cleaning crew (7 employees), the laundry (3 employees), the kitchen (3 employees), the engineering department (4 employees), the hospedaje staff (3 employees), the gardening staff (4 employees), and the administration (office staff, 4) - 35 in all - and they are WONDERFUL!!

Below are two views of the front of the hotel (which was very well hidden and off the beaten path, by the way.  I guess they get their business by word of mouth, because they don't even have a sign out on the main street.)

 This is a closer shot of the front door

and the only sign we saw with their name on it.

The grounds are surprisingly extensive and they appear to have several banquet rooms.  This is the walkway leading past one of the banquet rooms and toward the one where we would be served.

They have little statues and/or carvings like this around every corner --

showing the Bolivian culture, I guess.

Still on the walkway, passing the pool and approaching our building.

This is the entrance to the banquet room we used,

but I'm standing with my back to the room 

looking out on the grounds.

And here is the room before anyone but President Jensen and the Cabreras arrived.

This is looking from the north end of the room toward the entrance.

The man in front on the right is our WONDERFUL Bishop, Angel Tarqui.

He works as one of the cleaning crew at the temple.

Here we're standing with our backs to the entrance

and looking north.

The presidency sat in the center.  Sister Jensen and President Jensen are to my right.

President and Sister Garcia are across from the Jensens.

And here's a shot of us.

We finished at the hotel about 2:00 or so.

Then at 4:00, we were invited to go down to the dining room here in the hospedaje

for the party for the employees' children.

All ages of children are invited.

Here is President Jensen with two cute little elves!

One of the elves and her sister in the Santa hat, beside the tree in the hospedaje foyer.

 Here's President Jensen

giving his welcome and brief remarks

to the families and their children.

He did a great job,

especially considering the vast

age span represented.

As soon as he finished his remarks, President Jensen (and we) had

to leave, because it was time for him to take Los Pérez to the airport.

They are the second couple to leave in the last two weeks.

It is hard to see them go! 

I forgot to post this picture on December 3rd, when the Eames left for home.

We miss them, too.

Our third celebration yesterday was our North American Family Home Evening for the month of December. December 16th just happens to be the Westovers' anniversary (their 46th this year), so we decided to go out to dinner as a group and help them celebrate.  We went to La Estancia, which is a wonderful restaurant not far from here.  They serve great steaks and have an unbeatable salad bar.  Here are the Westovers (Lynda and Glen.)

A shot of the group from the other end of the table.

There were 12 of us altogether - 6 couples.

It was a great dinner and a most enjoyable evening.

We won't have this group very long because the Crayks, the Chalmers, and the Hursts are in their last six months (or less).  It's good to make these memories while we can.

Okay, that's it for today.  Have a beautiful "week before Christmas" - be well, be safe, be happy . . . y vayan con Dios!              

Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo